Just feeling ornery
Saturday, August 4, 2007 at 07:51AM Rainy day and just feeling ornery.
From "The Other Side of Plagiarism"...
Here I am! Lil’ Debbie, a senior at Big Kahuna High. I may be a little over-committed. I’m taking a full load of college-prep courses; I’m on the varsity surfing team; I’m president of the Future Teachers of America Club; I’m class treasurer; and I do volunteer work on the weekends, including teaching Sunday school to little blind children in their native Hmong language. Oh yeah, I work at Mickey D’s a few hours a week because I have these unreasonable parents who expect me to pay for my car insurance, save for college, and even buy my own tongue studs. Plus there is this really cute guy in my AP Trig class on whom I’d sure like to get a better angle.
So I come home Thursday night at seven, tired from a rugged surfing practice session and I’ve got about 4 hours before I need to crash. I have some choices about how to use this time. Let’s see I can…
- Spend hours researching and paraphrasing to write this paper assigned by Mr. Fuddy-Duddy on the causes of the Crimean War. (Wasn’t this like way back with Vietnam and Desert Storm?)
- Work on the assignments in my other 5 classes which are way more interesting and valuable.
- Revise my lesson for FTA on “How to Say the Pledge of Allegiance in a Really, Really Heartfelt Way.”
- Give that cute guy in Trig a call to see if he can explain the difference between a sine and cosine to me.
- Fill in at work for my best friend who needs the night of to help her mother who is just came home from the hospital.
One time at lunch, my g-friends and I were discussing some websites that let a person, just download term papers. Just log on, search, download and reformat. On some sites I can even say how good a writer I am so the paper doesn’t look too good for my writing abilities. I’m thinking this “short cut” on Fuddy-Duddy’s paper would allow me to do some things that actually, like, have meaning and value?
I know I do a better job on things that have relevance and when I know why they are important.
Reader Comments (8)
I heard someone say at a technology conference: "The way to end student plagiarism is to give assignments that can't be plagiarized". Something to think about.
Are you too "ornery" to participate in silly memes? I was tagged today (should I be honored??) so I'm tagging 8 people. I just wanted to aggravate ya! You have to visit my TechnoTuesday Blog to get the instructions. Sorry.
Cathy Nelson
http://technotuesday.edublogs.org/
How about setting your own homework, then the responsibility for its relevance lies with you!
I've tried this with young kids, asking them to set their own homework and it's been really interesting - most of them set themselves valuable, useful tasks that support their current learning styles - usually end up with a great range of responses.
Hi Eve,
I think this is a wonderful idea. I have long been a proponent of students creating their own evaluation/assessment tools and this seems to be a natural as well.
All the best and thanks for the comment,
Doug
In response to Eve (and Doug's) posts/comments, how would you assess the students' work if they set their own assignment? Do you give them certain guidelines or perameters? I work in a rubric-driven district, can your method work with rubrics?
I love Eve and Nancy's suggestions that homework be plagarism-proof by not being a simple regurgitation of information. Homework today needs to be meaningful and relevant. (and fun isn't too much to ask as well!) I think that the project is likely to be centered around some theme, so a rubric could be created for general content (i.e. includes mention of all the planets), or basic questions that could cover any content (the guidelines you present when offering the open homework in the first place).
I recently read parts of Tough Choices OR Tough Times, and think the ideas discussed here in Doug's blog are getting at the kinds of things we need to move toward in education. We need to get our kids thinking and working creatively and collaboratively. And it feels hard to "assess" or lay out an assignment for. We need to keep asking questions and sharing solutions. Thanks for your insights here today.
Isn't there an old adage along the lines of "what gets tested gets taught"??? Well, when we continue to give students multiple choice (er, I mean "selected response") questions, and teachers teach to the test, it's hard to break out of the mold of "the way we've always done it." But I really wish we could move to a pedagogy that incorporates the excellent ideas expressed on this blog.
Kids developing their own homework! I love it. In the interest of making the onerous task of teaching a little less cumbersome, I will institute the policy that kids develop their own curriculum in my class. It will be a lot like a day at Knoebels!
Two eternal debates line up; a race for the ages:
Homework vs. Abortion
Let me know when there's a winner.
In the meantime, I have a curriculum to adhere to.